This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for providing a universal interface for managing content on large computer networks and other devices.
In recent times, the World Wide Web maintained on the Internet, as well as other large networks of computers and other devices, has become a prevalent communications medium for wide-ranging purposes from information gathering and exchange to commercial transactions. As personal devices, such as computers, personal digital assistants (xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9ds), cellular phones, etc., are becoming increasingly integrated with this medium, individuals are becoming more reliant on the content and services offered. As a result, it has become an important marketing and sales tool for various businesses.
For example, a business can advertise its products or services, accept orders for its products and services, receive various inquiries and other information from the general public, and in many other ways increase the ability to provide information to the public through the Web.
To take advantage of this new media outlet, it is necessary for a business to design and maintain a web site that users can visit, and to permit the desired interaction with the users. The procedure for designing a web site has historically taken one of two paths. First, it is possible for a business to purchase a software package that aids in generating such a web site. However, the look and feel of the web site would typically be similar to all other web sites generated with the same software package because the number of choices of design or xe2x80x9ctemplatesxe2x80x9d is limited. Additionally, it may be difficult to coordinate and pool a wide range of skills from various personnel required to create such a web site. Furthermore, web sites created with such a software product typically do not have the level of complexity desired by businesses.
To overcome these drawbacks, a business may hire an outside consulting firm to generate its web site. Such a consulting firm may be an expert in web site generation, and may include personnel able to generate a high quality, complex web site in accordance with the business owner""s desires. However, use of an outside firm includes various drawbacks. There is typically a long delay in generating a web site because the outside service is busy with many clients. Additionally, the business owner who has the most in-depth understanding of the business is not directly involved with the generation of the web site, and therefore must relate this information to the web site designers, who then use this information to generate the web site. It may take a number of iterations for the business owner to have his or her ideas about the business properly included in the web site. Additionally, because an outside consultant is designing the web site, artistic control for the web site must be given from the business owner to the web site designer. While the business owner may have the opportunity to make comments during design of the site, it is not possible for the business owner to be involved on a day to day basis in every aspect of the design of the site. Indeed this is why outside designers are hired, but at a cost. The resulting site may not be precisely what the business owner desires, and may be very expensive to implement.
Further, once the design of the web site is completed and the site is up and running on the World Wide Web, the maintenance costs for maintaining and updating a site may be substantial. Any additions to the site, such as adding new pages or new sections, may be very expensive. Furthermore, such added pages may not fit in with the overall scheme of the web site, thereby resulting in an unwieldy site. Additionally, while a web site may provide links to other web sites, it is typically difficult for an individual user to incorporate various complementary programs within its web site, such as calculators, or other business or scientific related information that perform a function.
Therefore, in general, the use of an outside firm to provide a web site isolates the business owners from the finished product in a way that the web site may become unwieldy to update, and therefore less useful for a business owner.
One of the current trends in web site development products is the ability to drag objects and position them anywhere on the screen. While this ability would seem to be beneficial, the process of dragging objects around a screen may result in the user drastically affecting the compatibility of their web site with their visitors. This problem is a result of the user possibly placing objects outside of the visibility of the visitors"" web browser. Such a problem may arise if the user is developing a web site at say 1024xc3x97768 resolution, but the visitor is viewing the web site at 800xc3x97600 resolution. A user may place an object in a location that is unviewable by the visitor. Another example of incompatibility is when a user is developing a web site in a 800xc3x97600 resolution, but the visitor is viewing the web site at say 1024xc3x97768, the visitor will see a large area of xe2x80x9cspacexe2x80x9d that does not fill the browser because of xe2x80x9cfixed widthxe2x80x9d development of the web site. This development trend is seen as limiting as it does not cater for future screen and browser resolution compatibility.
The barriers to completing a usable and impressive web site noted above arise as a result of the division that exists between a business that wishes to advertise through a web site and the resources required to create and maintain that site. The skills required include hardware and software maintenance, business analysis, authoring of the web site with various page layout features, graphic design, generation of the web site content, actual computer programming and maintaining of a required data base. These skills require specialized knowledge of various tools by a user, including flow charting tools, various programming language knowledge, such as in HyperText Markup Language (xe2x80x9cHTMLxe2x80x9d), JAVA(trademark), JAVASCRIPT(trademark), etc., graphic design using Photo Shop(trademark), Paint Shop Pro(trademark) or other graphics design program, use of a word processor, and use of various database programs.
As is obvious, these skills and products require people having widely differing backgrounds to work together as a team to create a quality product that exists in what many naturally feel to be both a new and alien environment, the Internet. These people who collectively possess the skills to create a particular web site are not likely to be the owners of the business that is requesting the web site, and indeed in many cases are not in any way connected to the business owners who wish to generate the web site, or to each other. For this reason, maintenance of a quality web site in-house is very costly, and may be nearly impossible for many small businesses. Any web site that cannot be properly maintained soon fails in its goal of being an inexpensive, efficient, accurate and flattering representation of the company. As the information included in the web site becomes out-of-date, and unprofessional graphics and layouts are incorporated by unskilled personnel during maintenance, the entire look and feel of the web site deteriorates.
In general, these methods of web site generation may be categorized as xe2x80x9cone-to-onexe2x80x9dxe2x80x94that is, each individual web site requires the participation of a programming and design team to implement and maintain the site. Moreover, it has also recently become desirable to have an outside company host the web site to absorb the costs of maintaining the server hardware and software up-to-date and to flexibly handle variations and unexpected changes in traffic and volume of visitors and transactions on the web site. Such an outside company may be colloquially referred to as a xe2x80x9cserver farmxe2x80x9d. In general, a server farm seeks to create economies of scale by having a single company that is expert in the maintenance of the web server maintain and update the hardware and software necessary for the operation of a number of web sites. As web traffic and business grows, each company having a web site with the server farm will in theory not have to individually maintain personnel capable of scaling the servers to handle the traffic and business.
But to date, the server farm theory has suffered from the problem that control of the web site is further disconnected from the operators of the business. Changes to the content, structure and design of the web site are complex and expensive. Because the design and implementation are xe2x80x9cone-to-onexe2x80x9d there has been no means available for rapid proliferation of sites hosted by an outside server host, i.e., a method that does not require involvement of an experienced design and/or programmer for each site that is to be hosted.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a web site generation method and apparatus that overcomes these drawbacks.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for web site generation that harnesses and coordinates all the resources required for creating, updating and maintaining a quality web site.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for web site generation that allows a user to make various selections regarding design of a web site and for the web site to maintain an overall consistency, regardless of these choices.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for web site generation that allows for the collection of various information from an external database to be used in making automatic selections regarding the design of a web site.
An additional object of the invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus in which a user may change the look and feel of a web site easily and throughout the web site, but the content and navigation of the web site is maintained.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for web site generation that allows various applications to be launched from within the generated web site while maintaining a user at the web site.
A still further object of the invention is to allow those who are responsible to a particular business, individual or other party to control, manage, and easily modify both the content and the presentation style of the information in the web site.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for web site generation and maintenance that allows for centralized hosting of a number of web sites through a method that allows for rapid proliferation of the hosted sites without the need for experienced design and programming personnel to be involved on a site-by-site basis.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for generating a functional web site that allows for the taking and fulfillment of purchase orders.
Yet another object of the invention is to capture differing skills of individual people necessary to generate a web site so that these skills can be combined in a xe2x80x9c1-to-manyxe2x80x9d format, thereby insuring that a single person or skill is not restricted to a single web user but becomes available to all users.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus where each graphical image can be stored as images and yet have textual content rendered and delivered as part of the graphical image, thus providing a dynamic method of providing a combination of content and graphical information.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will impart the obvious and will impart the apparent from the specification and the drawings.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a Universal Content Manager (xe2x80x9cUCMxe2x80x9d) is provided by integrating, within one Internet navigation interface: a complete business web site solution; extranet/private Network, enabling companies to safely and efficiently deal with partners, vendors and suppliers; LifeSite, providing individuals and families with fully-realized and powerful personal Internet capabilities; comprehensive e-mail management; and storing and retrieving business financial and/or personal information.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided an improved method and apparatus for generating and maintaining a customized web site, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for allowing an inexperienced user to make various design and content selections for generation of a customized web site. Regardless of the selections made by a user, correspondence between these selections is maintained by the apparatus such that each web site appears as a customized individual web site. A user may be prohibited or discouraged from making design choices that might detract from the overall look and feel of the site.
The user portion of the system includes a web site provider (hereinafter Definer) which acts as an assembly line for an end-user to generate a customized web site. The Definer references a large amount of diverse resources and presents them to a user for easy and intuitive assembly into a polished, complete web site. All of these resources can be provided to the end-user without the need for any specialized knowledge on the part of the user, and without the necessity for the user to be in direct contact with any skilled contributors to the web site generation process. The Definer is the user interface, or front end of a suite of complementary products designed to create a cohesive environment allowing various people with the numerous skills noted above that are required to build a web site to perform in harmony, thereby generating an environment that facilitates teamwork between web creators and web or business owners.
The Definer in accordance with the invention includes various modules, including a site provider (Site Definer) for defining the structure, content and embedded applications of a web site, a framework provider (Framework Definer) which provides various layout variations for a web site, an image provider (Image Definer) which allows for the selection and maintenance of various images on a web site, a Project Manager which coordinates the three prior Definer Publishing products to produce a professional multi-dimensional web site solution, and a web provider (Web Definer) which is the end-user tool that allows a user to select various combinations and to edit the web site. Through the use of such a system, technicians not related to the business owner can contribute essential elements to the production of a web site, including business analyses, graphics, page layout, and copyrighted content that may be used in a business owner""s web site, and various applications that may also be incorporated into the web site. Because the provision of all of these features are provided independent of a business owner designing a web site, the end result of the work of each of the designers providing the above information will be available for all users during generation of each of their web sites.
A business owner, therefore, need only interact with the Web Definer to create and maintain a finished, polished web site. The Web Definer allows the owners of a web site to choose both the image, including look and feel, and the content information that their web site will present even though in most cases the owners of the business do not have the technical skills required to achieve this objective from scratch. Thus, the Web Definer brings all of the elements created by skilled personnel using various tools and skills, together in a powerful and intuitive interface that can be easily used by non-technical end-users to create and maintain unique web sites of a professional quality. The Web Definer performs this function by collecting all essential elements of a web site and then simply allows the business owner to arrange, color, and combine these essential elements in an almost infinite number of ways. Thus, the Web Definer acts as a xe2x80x9cweb kaleidoscopexe2x80x9d wherein by a user simply pressing various buttons or making other simple choices, the elements of a user""s web site rearrange themselves in accordance with various parameters until a desired effect is obtained. Additionally, maintenance can be performed at any time, and the look and feel of a particular web site can be changed in a matter of minutes. This is because the Web Definer, while allowing a user to change the look and feel of a web site, maintains the content and navigation of the web site, if the user desires, without making any changes thereto. In this way, rather than tediously redefining and recording new areas of a web site to see how changes would be incorporated, it is simple for a user to simply select a new look and feel, colors, or any one of the other number of almost infinite combinations to re-present its web site in a different light. In the preferred embodiment, the process of rearranging or regenerating selected features of the web site while keeping others constant is so simple that the user can create, view, and save for future consideration, a large number of different versions by xe2x80x9ctrial and errorxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94all within a matter of minutes.
The web site designing method and apparatus of the present invention are unique in that the method and apparatus provide great functionality traditionally provided by a diverse range of products and services into one cohesive environment launched from a globally accessible platform through the Internet or other computer network. The product includes a shared proprietary repository of finite, interchangeable, independent resources that can be easily combined to create an almost infinite number of web sites and allows for all human resources to contribute and be accessed at a single location.
Further, the invention preferably allows for the alteration of the structure of the web site by allowing pages or sections to be moved, added or deleted with all referencing and referenced portions to be updated automatically. Accordingly, a page can be added simply by specifying the referencing page(s) and links will be automatically provided on the referencing pages. This change to the navigation is performed automatically. There is no need for a designer to reprogram the links on every referencing page.
An additional feature of the invention permits rapid proliferation of web sites hosted by a central server system. The web sites generated by the invention may themselves reference a central hosting system containing the necessary software and hardware for carrying out the invention. Thus, each web site generated provides access for additional users to generate their own web sites, which in turn provides additional points of access. Each site so generated may be hosted on the same centralized system, eliminating the need for the business owner (or other site generating person or entity) to host and maintain the necessary equipment, and personnel. Thus, the invention enables for the first time a true one-to-many method and apparatus allowing for rapid proliferation of sites hosted on a central server form.
By providing a self-replicating method for generating a multitude of vastly different, unique web sites the invention provides a xe2x80x9cone-to-manyxe2x80x9d method for generating and hosting web sites, overcoming a major obstacle present in current web generation methods and devices. In other words, in the preferred embodiment, a single web site generator according to the invention can be used to generate a vast number of unique, professional web sites, hosted by a single host, which may be comprised of whatever hardware and software is necessary to host the business and traffic created by the sites hosted.
It should be noted that although the invention is herein generally described in the context of business applications, it is equally useful for non-business applications, such as individual or family web sites, and may be used by non-profit businesses, government agencies or bureaus or almost any individual, group or organization desiring a web site for any legal purposes.
The method and apparatus in accordance with the invention ease the web site design process by providing various features. These include navigation, variation and presentation, separation, business-driven content, colors and What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (xe2x80x9cWYSIWYGxe2x80x9d) editing. These features will each now be described.
The method and apparatus in accordance with the invention provide a unique navigation model to protect users from one of the main maintenance obstacles faced by those using traditional authoring toolsxe2x80x94maintaining navigation through the web site when the web site is edited. In accordance with the invention, the navigational links that provide access to all pages of a user""s web site are maintained no matter how the user changes or manipulates the underlying structure of the site, such as the look and feel or the content. This is achieved in accordance with the invention by an algorithm that governs the most efficient way to maintain links between pages of the web site based upon their structural relationship with one another. Thus, the presentation of the site remains consistent no matter what changes the user makes. With the time-consuming, error-prone task of maintaining navigation out of a user""s way, the user is free to organize and present their web site in any way they like without worrying about maintaining the navigation.
In accordance with the invention, each user can present a unique web presence to the marketplace with very little effort. In accordance with the invention, a large collection of images called xe2x80x9cimage setsxe2x80x9d are available. Each image set is diverse in nature, but conforms loosely to a theme. Once a user chooses a particular image set, he or she can select from among the pictures in the set and combine these images in any way to create a unique web site, with any combination assured to appear professionally designed. This is referred to in the invention as a xe2x80x9cmultidimensional presentation.xe2x80x9d Almost an infinite number of combinations are available so that a user""s web site not only looks professional, but also unique.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, while the features of the web site are all intertwined, the invention allows a user to change one or more of most of the attributes of the invention without affecting the other attributes of the web site. The presentation, structure, navigation, content, target resolution, etc., of each web site are maintained independently from each other. Any of these major attributes may be changed at any time without affecting the others.
Thus, a user may change the content, navigation, or even the entire look and feel of the site, and the other attributes are maintained, and automatically updated to incorporate the user""s change. This ability allows for more frequent, less expensive updates of the user""s web site.
The invention insures: (1) that users are able to publish a quality web site with a minimum amount of work, (2) that the content of the web site is customized for a user""s business, and (3) that a user""s web site can include all of the most up-to-date features for a particular industry (pre-created industry content may be provided to a user). In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, pre-created industry content (xe2x80x9cdynamic contentxe2x80x9d) is provided to a user in one of over 200 industry groups. This content is then customized to each user based upon answers to various questions. The answers to these questions generate site-wide variables that set the look and feel of the site. Changing of any of the variables affects the entire site in a cohesive manner, including the addition or removal of industry-based content. A user can therefore generate a customized web site including individual and industry-based content. In addition, the user can edit the textual and graphic content, and can import its own content, including logos and/or graphics and text that the user has previously created. The user""s various information could also be obtained from an external database.
While a user can change many attributes of the web site, these changes may be maintained within a predetermined range in accordance with the method and apparatus invention. Thus, for example, when a user wishes to change a color, the user may be limited to only colors that have been determined to be xe2x80x9csafexe2x80x9d in regard to the other colors employed for the site. Re-coloring of images may be limited to aesthetically-pleasing colors and may also prevent certain colors, such as black or white from changing. Users can recolor images and be sure that the selected colors will aesthetically blend with the colors on the remainder of the web site.
The method and apparatus of the invention may also provide a user with WYSIWYG editing so that any change requested by a user is immediately implemented for viewing by the user.
The present invention is particularly suited for electronic commerce applications, including both business-to-consumer and business-to-business applications. In one preferred embodiment the web site generated is configured so that all aspects of an electronic business can be maintained on a single web site.
The web site may be maintained so that there are a variety of passwords or other identification method (including xe2x80x9ccookiesxe2x80x9d), each of which may allow specialized access to various portions of the site. For example, a potential customer may have a general-user password, or may require no password. Such a user would preferably have access to all informational and purchasing areas of the web site. The customer could place orders for various items offered for sale and could obtain all of the information on the products and the business offered throughout the web site. A different user, for example, in the warehousing segment of the electronic business, would preferably have access to a running inventory list of all items purchased by the on-line customers with all appropriate routing, delivery and other information which could be used either directly from the web site to fulfill the customer""s orders or downloaded onto the user""s own computer system for further processing. Other users could have further different types of access. For example, the accounting personnel could have access to a segment of the web site that maintained data on all sales, profitability, payments, etc. Marketing personnel could have access to various types of information that could be collected during the purchasing process such as personal profile data on the various types of consumers who purchase different types of goods, the origination of business as xe2x80x9cclick throughsxe2x80x9d from other web pages or from other sources, projections, etc. One particularly beneficial aspect of this feature is that it allows for efficient use of outsourcing, i.e., the accounting or marketing user can be an outside firm who has full access to all necessary information without having to physically visit the premises of the business. A large accounting or other professional firm can provide a standard interface to all of their customers so that all data is provided in a uniform and efficient manner.
The web site can be configured to include all of the necessary software to perform accounting, marketing, routing, delivery, and other functions, such that the entire electronic business is hosted at the centralized web site server system. Alternatively, portions of the business may be hosted at the various physical locations where the business operates.
The web site may be formatted so that it presents a different appearance depending on a number of factors including: the access password or other identification provided by the user (e.g., user profile, navigation history, etc.), or the capabilities of the device used to access the web site. For example, accounting personnel who log on may be presented only with the relevant accounting data in a format to which they are accustomed. Likewise, a customer or sales person who accesses the site through a reduced-capacity device such as a personal digital assistant (such as those currently marketed under the tradename Palm Pilot), a cellular telephone, or other communication device including those that have not yet been developed, would preferably be presented with the web site in a format useable by the accessing device. The web site can be configured so that it recognizes the format of the accessing device and presents a format that can be transmitted and used by the accessing device.
The web site may include content in any of a number of formats, including text, graphics, audio, video, audio-video, or other media that may be developed. The web site may also be generated to HTML that re-scales dynamically. In other words, the web sites that the product generates may dynamically automatically resize down to a resolution of 800xc3x97600 pixels which is usually the lowest level of most people currently using on PCs. This resolution is increased depending on the visitor""s equipment. The site can also be formatted during editing to depict the look of the site on a reduced capacity device, such as a palm computer, cellular telephone or the like. Thus, a user can design and view a web site for a variety of preview devices of differing capabilities.
The invention also provides for an area in the customer control panel, where a user can get a list of all the different sections available for use in a web site with a description of what each does and the ability to preview the pages in the sections. These sections can be generated by third party developers, and may include external components developed using a software development kit (xe2x80x9cSDKxe2x80x9d). If the user likes a particular component, the user would enter a credit card number, click a button and that section would appear in the user""s site and be paid for by the user.
Therefore, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, an easy to use method and apparatus is provided that removes many of the complexities of designing and maintaining a web site. A user is provided with suggested content, based upon an industry of the business, that can be modified as desired. Navigation is maintained independent of the designer. A graphical representation of this navigation is shown. The removal or addition of a page automatically generates an updated navigation. The style, colors, or art employed can each be modified without concern for the others, the content or the navigation. The inventions allow a designer to choose what he or she wants, and for direct implementation. No intermediaries are necessary.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an easy to use method and apparatus is provided for designing a targeted publishing/marketing web site that provides the method and apparatus (tools) for building and maintaining web sites of the invention to users and/or businesses of a certain category. For example, a designer may integrate new suggested content, navigation, styles, colors, art, etc. into a targeted publishing/marketing web site where new users of a certain category may create new web sites by choosing from the suggested content, navigation, styles, colors, art, etc., provided by the designer.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the UCM of the invention, a web environment may be provided for personalized content to an end user. In addition to creating a xe2x80x9cvirtual storefrontxe2x80x9d web site on the web, the Definer may be used to design a web site that provides a single URL access for site management of the xe2x80x9cstorefrontxe2x80x9d web site and all other aspects of web surfing, including personal content of individual end users. The population of content in a UCM web site may be based on a web site owner""s business, interests indicated by an individual user, or suggested by the UCM based on the user""s profile. The UCM web site provides a venue for businesses to provide targeted goods and/or services and to provide a flexible xe2x80x9cone-stopxe2x80x9d web experience for end users. Its features include: user profile orientation; natural web site navigation for content organization; navigation driven, context sensitive xe2x80x9cbillboard contentxe2x80x9d; complete xe2x80x9ccommunicationxe2x80x9d services (including email management, chat, group calendar); web site creation and publishing; and Integrated business services
The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the apparatus embodying features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts that are adapted to effect such steps, all as exemplified in this disclosure.